Russ Shaw2015-03-03T17:57:02-05:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=russ-shawCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Russ ShawGood old fashioned elbow grease.Failing IT Education Hindering UK Economytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.42557572013-11-11T20:47:57-05:002014-01-23T18:58:21-05:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
So, why are we not giving more of our young people the best chance of reaching their potential and making our tech scene a storming success?

As it is, not enough time in the classroom is dedicated to ensuring those with the aptitude are allowed to flourish. For the majority of students, IT is a waste of time, barely progressing further than navigating spreadsheets and thrashing out pointless presentations - but this is hardly fresh insight. The IT curriculum has been a missed opportunity in our schools for a very long time.

Last year Michael Gove, the UK's Education Secretary, described the existing school curriculum for ICT as being "harmful and dull", and I couldn't agree more - ICT has not been taught effectively in our schools as I have seen through my own children.

The recent STEM Skills Gap report, which was conducted by YouGov, revealed that 59% of businesses and 79% of universities believe there are not enough skilled candidates leaving education to meet industry's employment requirements. This report goes to show that very little progression has been made since Gove's statement.

Young people are being taught how to use technology but not how to create it. ICT taught in schools has lost its meaning and relevance, and it has become synonymous with word processing and spreadsheets. It is absolutely essential that this changes, and fast.

The teaching of technology must become fully integrated into the school curriculum to ensure that young people have an understanding of how technology works. Only then will they be able to innovate around it and build new ideas from it.

A study by Development Economics this autumn found that the UK will need 750,000 additional, digitally skilled workers by 2017 if it is to capitalise on a £12bn economic opportunity. And nearly 200,000 of these new jobs are particularly suited to young workers. With current high levels of youth unemployment, this really sounds like a fantastic opportunity to match young people with good job prospects.

The next generation of tech entrepreneurs is growing up with technology as a constant part of their day-to-day lives. To unleash the economic potential of their digital know-how, it is essential that they understand not just how to use these systems, but ultimately how to create them.

The government has understood that ICT as a subject name carries negative connotations of a dated and unchallenging curriculum that does not serve the needs and ambitions of pupils. It has therefore confirmed that from September 2014, the school ICT curriculum will re-labelled as "Computing".

The details of the refreshed "Computing" curriculum are yet to be announced, however it has been promised that "changing the subject name of ICT to computing will not only improve the status of the subject but also more accurately reflect the breadth of content included in the proposed new programmes of study".

At Tech London Advocates, we have set up a Working Group to explore education as an issue which the tech sector is facing, and at an event at Level39 this October, Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk Group argued that it is both socially and economically important to inspire our next generation to succeed in the tech space and ensure that we support a pipeline of future talent.

I urge the government to ensure that this curriculum change is much more than just a re-branding exercise. The government must commit to pave the way for a transformation of the education of our future tech and digital workers.

I look forward to the day when coding and app building are taken as seriously as traditional subjects and recognised as making a valuable contribution to the economy.]]>Mounting Investor Confidence Paves the Way for a New Age of UK Techtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28190612013-03-06T10:58:22-05:002013-05-06T05:12:01-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/released last week by Ascendant Corporate Finance reveal a welcome resurgence in the UK and Irish tech scene, and it appears that it's just a sign of things to come.

Over £1billion was invested in 232 deals of over half a million pounds in 2012, signaling the highest level of investment in tech companies in UK and Ireland for over a decade. These figures are very encouraging and demonstrate that tech is beginning to step up and play a leading role in the UK economy.

If the UK is going to compete in the modern global economy, technology companies will have to play a major role, and it is only through these levels of investment that we can make good startups become exceptional businesses. Taxi company Hailo is a perfect example of the impact that external investment can make in accelerating a business. The company received £19m of venture capital investment and is now operating in nine cities internationally, and counting.

In order for Hailo's success to be replicated over and over, it is vital that these levels of investment continue to grow. Momentum is building, and it is up to our large corporates and institutional investors along with venture capitalists and private equity firms to identify and develop the potential within UK tech and invest accordingly.

These £500,000+ investments are great for high growth companies that have made it through the startup phase and are ready to scale their businesses for expansion through later-stage growth. We need to ensure that there is a steady pipeline of both startups and later-stage growth companies ready to provide exceptional returns to investors through new, dynamic and often disruptive business models.

It is really encouraging that investment into UK technology startups reached a ten year high in the first half of 2012, with nearly £600m put into early stage businesses. These companies often only need modest investment to get their ideas off the ground and to put themselves in with a chance of success. If 2012 is going to be seen as a tipping point for tech investment in the UK, we need to make sure the money flows both to startups to get them off the ground and to high-growth, high-potential businesses to help them fly.

For me, possibly the most exciting aspect of this research is the concentration of investment in London's tech scene.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, London based tech companies captured £151m of investment, representing 72% of the value of the market for the whole quarter. This is representative of 93 London tech companies receiving growth, compared to, for example, just 10 in Oxford.

While it is important that technology is not solely focused in London, it is clear from examples around the world that innovation works best when skills, ideas, competition and success are concentrated in hubs. London has all the ingredients to be exactly that type of hub and is already well on the way to becoming a powerful tech city.

But to complete that journey, the potential needs to be nurtured and our successes need to be championed. Leading London figures need to tell the world about the burgeoning tech revolution happening here and cement the city as the place set up and grow a world beating company.]]>Boris Backing London's Tech is a Great Starttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.26883722013-02-14T14:20:14-05:002013-04-16T05:12:01-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/open the day's trading at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) this week and encourage investors to back the science and technology sectors. This mayoral stimulus is exactly what's needed to help London's burgeoning tech scene move on to the next stage.

As the Mayor emphasised, emerging businesses need to be financially supported and nurtured. London is already home to the greatest concentration of tech firms in Europe and to enable this to continue, high growth small businesses need investment.

The Mayor is absolutely right to suggest that there should be a reduction or abolition of taxes on equity investment in order to widen SME access to equity finance. It is also essential, as the LSE is advocating, that the gap between the Main Market and the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is bridged.

AIM was developed to meet the needs of smaller, growing companies from any sector or country who might not meet the full criteria for a listing on the main market of the LSE. Through initiatives such as The High Growth Segment, LSE is opening up market access to the SMEs that need it most.

However, for tech startups to really achieve the investment they require, there needs to be a focus on attracting more of the bigger corporates and institutional investors, to strategically invest in tech businesses as they move to later stage growth and in venture capital and private equity funds. Great progress is being made in developing early stage tech businesses, but as those startups begin to need deeper funding rounds (series B, C and beyond), it is the large corporate and institutional investors that will need to step up and enable these businesses to accelerate and scale their growth.

With the memory of the dot com bubble still fresh, it is understandable that they might be apprehensive about investing in high risk, high growth businesses, but this really needs to change. And fast.

The market is different now and London is quickly establishing itself as a tech and digital cluster. With greater capital, both in terms of seed investment and later stage funding, particularly from large corporations and institutions, early stage companies that show promise and potential are more likely to flourish and move into later stage growth phases.

Reputable corporations are already beginning to encourage the development of tech talent. The Google Campus in Shoredicth, for example, includes several floors of flexible workspace, with free high speed internet. It hosts many useful events, which are powered by the startup community, such as weekly mentoring programmes, speaker series and networking events.

Through the Tech City Investment Organisation, companies such as Facebook, Intel and Blackberry are working to inspire young people to study STEM subjects. This kind of support and mentoring is vital in order to nurture and up-skill our tech enthusiasts so that they can evolve into world-class talents. Last month, TCIO also teamed up with Hackney Community College to offer 500 unemployed young people in London the opportunity to work in London's most exciting and high-profile digital companies and to create an apprenticeship training centre in the Olympic Park broadcasting centre, providing up to 350 young people each week with the skills training they need to work in Tech City.

There is a lot of great work happening to develop and nurture London's technology scene as it looks to make a real contribution to the UK's economic growth. But we need more high profile supporters to champion London's burgeoning technology startups and to lead the way in enabling London's tech hub to reach its full potential. These technology advocates have the profile, means and influence to promote Tech London and help our unbeatable tech nucleus to become truly world class.

The Mayor's support for London's Tech scene is a great start, but it's important that his backing is only the beginning of this journey.]]>Why Remaining in the EU Is Vital for London's Tech Start-upstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.26158402013-02-04T11:10:31-05:002013-04-06T05:12:01-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/EU speech provides a good opportunity for UK policy makers, businesses and the general public, to re-address the UK's relationship with Europe.

That the promise of a referendum triggered a five-point bounce in the polls demonstrates a significant interest amongst large parts of the UK public to revisit the European question.

As a passionate supporter of London's tech startups, I am particularly aware of the benefits of the UK's position in the EU and welcome Cameron's focus on returning the EU to its basic common market principles.

History has taught us that unrestricted trade flow is a key economic driver of growth and prosperity. This fluid trade pattern benefits businesses of all sizes, as well as consumers, by offering them a choice regarding quality and price. It makes sound economic sense.

In this context, it is important that small and medium sized enterprises across the UK remain at the heart of the EU and, therefore, take advantage of trading opportunities with other European countries. Access to the single market is integral for British businesses and British jobs: we currently trade in excess of £480 billion with the EU, which is approximately 52% of the UK's total trade in goods and services.

But more than that, EU membership enables Britain's businesses to benefit from the collective bargaining power of one of the world's most important trading blocs. It is likely that the 21st Century will see the agreement of even more deals between the world's trading powerhouses, with bilateral deals that will be negotiated in Brussels with the US (and possibly NAFTA--US, Canada, Mexico), China, Brazil and other emerging markets.

In a world where technology is breaking down the traditional barriers to international trade and the Internet is creating an ever-expanding global marketplace, UK businesses simply must not find themselves on the sidelines of the action and disadvantaged by punitive excise taxes.

An isolated United Kingdom will struggle to compete in a world where innovative technology will underpin international trade and transactions by enabling the seamless global movement of goods and services. That Amazon's annual revenues are larger than the GDPs of half the countries of the world illustrates the growing dominance of international trade, facilitated by the universality of the Internet.

The fact that 26% of non-EU companies currently have their European headquarters in the UK is of course driven in part by language, time zones and connectivity. But imagine how that figure would change if UK businesses no longer had access to free trade with the European Union.

One of the most prevalent accusations levelled at the European Union is that its red-tape and bureaucracy stifles British business and Cameron was right to call for Europe's smallest entrepreneurial companies to be exempt from more EU directives.

However, we should not forget the other benefits EU membership brings to those small businesses, particularly in the technology sector. A recent CBI report highlighted that over 45% of employers envisaged they will face problems finding staff with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills in the next three years and that skill gap is most painfully felt by tech startups. Progress is being made to upskill the UK workforce through the Tech City Investment Organisation, in partnership with organisations such as Facebook, Intel and Blackberry, to inspire young people to study STEM subjects... this is a good start.

But these initiatives will take time to bear fruit. In the meantime, the EU's free movement of labour enables British businesses to recruit the top talent from across Europe and to compete in the modern global knowledge economy. Gaining access to this talent, if it is in short supply in the UK, brings both STEM skills and probably a better understanding to a variety of new markets into which these tech businesses can quickly expand.

So, it is clear that membership of a European common market is vital in helping digital and technology businesses access more markets, potential customers, suppliers, and opportunities for growth.

But the relationship cannot stop there. So many of the decisions that make it possible for young tech entrepreneurs and companies to succeed are made in Brussels. It is essential that the UK has not just a voice, but a 'significant' voice, at the top table of European policy-making, representing the interests of British business. Frankly, we need this right now!]]>New Tech City Investments Are a Further Boost to Britain's Digital Aspirationstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.22708132012-12-10T09:55:36-05:002013-02-09T05:12:01-05:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
In a further demonstration of the government's ongoing commitment to developing the UK as a leading centre for digital startups, the prime minister last week declared his aim of making East London "one of the world's great technology clusters" with new investments from organisations including KPMG, Microsoft, University College London and IBM.

In his Mansion House speech last month and again in Tech City last week, Mr Cameron stated that the UK is in a "global race" for technology leadership. "As well as backing the businesses of today, we are creating an aspiration nation and also backing the innovative, high-growth businesses of the future,", he said. He could not be more right.

Berlin and other European cities are busily building their own digital clusters and have set their sights on being Europe's preferred destinations for the hottest new firms and the venture capital that will follow.

A recent BBC report on Berlin's potential highlighted the abundance of digital firms in the city and claimed that it could be a serious challenger to London's technology aspirations.

Also last month, Telefonica Digital released a fascinating report into the hottest digital centres in the world today. London was flagged up as the city whose startup community has experienced the most significant growth in recent years, but the report highlighted several barriers to growth that could stop the city from becoming a serious challenger to Silicon Valley. Foremost was the fact that access to capital, and, in particular, early stage venture funding (post angel investing) drops off a cliff in London in comparison to Silicon Valley.

Getting motivated and educated talent into these businesses will also be something to monitor, especially as other European centres will be trying to attract the same startups and entrepreneurs. With such competitive pressures, Mr Cameron's support for the capital's technology industry is very welcome and while the government has been criticised in some quarters for badging the nascent tech scene "Tech City", I see great value in having the Prime Minister backing a sector of the economy that is focused on growth, jobs and value creation.

According to an FT report, the £50m investment will go into developing the Old Street roundabout area with a new "civic centre for start-ups and entrepreneurs" called Open Institute. I have seen some early versions of this, and it is very impressive.

Due to be completed by 2016, the building will host training activities, exhibitions, events, workspaces, a 400-seat auditorium and a 3D-printing centre. Under the plans, the complex will have the capacity to train 10,000 students in programming (yes, more coders are needed) and business skills, as well as host technology conferences, the FT reported.

If these moves help attract further investment to the area and ensure that the global tech giants - from Amazon to Microsoft, from Google to Telefonica - continue to bring their might to the area, the government is doing many good things to give the UK's growing tech cluster a better than fighting chance against the rest. Bring it on!]]>It's Time For Britain to Stop Doing Itself Downtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19706172012-10-16T12:38:17-04:002012-12-16T05:12:02-05:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
It seems to have become fashionable to sneer at the so-called Silicon Roundabout and the digital and technology firms growing there - they're no Silicon Valley we're told. On some measures, the critics would be right, but that says nothing for its huge potential.

Do we even want to replicate Silicon Valley? Would we not rather develop the things that London brings to the table? The fact that the city is a global financial hub which hosts the world's leading creative, advertising, fashion and design industries can't hurt.

That said, East London is growing quickly. Big players like Google, Intel and Cisco have set up in 'Tech City' in the last two years. And confidence is growing - the latest findings from the Investec Entrepreneur Confidence Index show that 81 per cent of entrepreneurs are expecting an increase in profits, 63 per cent expect their UK workforce to grow and 41 per cent think it's likely that they'll launch new products or companies in the year to come.

Another promising sign is the bond that has formed between Imperial College and Tech City through schemes such as the Digital City Exchange, a major research programme. This is more important than you might realise - Silicon Valley was founded on links to Stanford. This doesn't necessarily mean London will give birth to the next Facebook or Google, but it's a clear sign that it could have a huge impact in health care, sustainability or transport thanks to the university's expertise.

A number of British tech companies are even starting to explore floatation - something largely unheard of in this country. This year three companies, including Sheffield-based WANdisco, floated on AIM. These are early days, but the government is showing encouraging signs of providing a remedy, pledging just last month to relax the requirements for listing on the London Stock Exchange.

And while we may still lag behind Silicon Valley on some dimensions, Hermann Hauser, one of the country's best-known technology investors, thinks we're ahead of continental Europe and have made phenomenal progress.

Indeed, Startup Genome's research ranks London as the third most successful digital innovation "ecosystem" in the world (behind Silicon Valley and New York) - a calculation, which includes the total market size, type, revenue streams, product development and thought leadership.

It even credits London's entrepreneurs with being 21 per cent more likely than their Silicon Valley counterparts to tackle existing markets with better products.

It's stuff to be optimistic about - and deserves more support than a simple economic measure. Indeed, as David Cameron said: "It's not just about growth and GDP. It's what's always made our hearts beat faster - aspiration; people rising from the bottom to the top". It's time to stop doing ourselves down - and believe that Silicon Britain can soar.]]>Education the Key to Ensuring Our Digital Futuretag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18246152012-08-23T09:57:10-04:002012-10-23T05:12:11-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
Such a swift and decisive embrace of the digital economy can only be good for East London, and the UK as a whole. Tech City has built foundations that may one day allow it to emulate Silicon Valley as shorthand for a nationwide sector of booming digital activity.

But the afterglow of the Olympic summer is not a time to rest back on the achievements of the last four years. Instead, it is vital that we recognise and address problems that are beginning to affect Tech City, and equip it to be Britain's (and Europe's) digital leader for decades to come.

The Centre for London report, A Tale of Tech City, highlighted the rapid growth of digital start-up activity in the Shoreditch area, but also exposed several areas of ongoing concern. Operationally, there is a connectivity deficit, which risks holding back digitally reliant businesses, and a spreading concern that the cheap rental rates which have been such an attraction cannot last.

But beyond slow wi-fi and creeping rental, there is a more fundamental issue: people. A skills gap and lack of graduates and school-leavers equipped to thrive in the digital economy is doing more than anything else to threaten Tech City, and all attempts to move Britain forward on a digital footing.

A worrying number of the Tech City businesses interviewed by the Centre for London identified the lack of a skilled recruitment base, both in developers and support staff, as one of their primary concerns. The skilled migration cap is limiting their attempts to bridge this gap with developers and computer scientists from outside the EU.

But problems bringing skilled digital workers into the UK should not distract us from the need to ensure that our own future generations are given an education which makes them fit for the digital sphere that will dominate their working lives.

That's why it's so encouraging that local schools and colleges are now getting involved in the Tech City ecosystem. Hackney Council are leading the way, investing in an apprenticeship scheme to get school leavers placed with Tech City firms, while in terms of higher education, UCL and Imperial College are partnering with Cisco to set up a Research and Innovation Centre in Future Cities, based in Tech City.

Spear, a brilliant local charity which supports disadvantaged youth in parts of London, offers services like coaching, CV preparation and mock interviews to help these young people get on the right track with a career path.

Projects like these will be invaluable in creating an educational foundation on which the future growth of Tech City can be based. The interface between the education and digital sectors is already being forged by figures like Stephen Caddick, the Vice Provost (Enterprise) at UCL, who was recently appointed to the Government's Tech City Advisory Group.

These linkages, and the projects they drive, will help produce the skills base needed to make Tech City, and the offshoots it hopes to generate, viable prospects for Britain's digital future.

That future is already hurtling into view. This year has already seen a number of blue-chip tech companies - including Google, Microsoft, Vodafone and Amazon - announcing big new investments in London, while the Olympic Park media centre is to be converted into a technology hub.

All this ambition needs a workforce of homegrown digital natives to sustain it. Only by equipping the next generation for tech careers can we ensure that what began as a hopeful cluster of start-ups will leave a lasting digital footprint.]]>Tech City: The Other 'Team GB' to Get Behind This Summertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.17223442012-07-31T19:00:00-04:002012-09-30T05:12:04-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
But aside from our sportsmen and women, I will also be cheering on a very different 'Team GB'. Based just down the road from the Olympics base, its members have also made the UK a world-class contender in its field.

The startups in Tech City that cluster around the Old Street roundabout continue to go from strength to strength in their quest to be amongst the world's finest.

Thousands of talent-rich small companies line the area - like EDITD, a kind of 'Bloomberg for fashion'; taxi booking service HAILO and luxury travel club Secret Escapes. These firms and more mean that London genuinely competes on the world innovation stage.

Moreover, a number of recent announcements have signified a vote of confidence in the area from some of the world's major players.

Amazon is to open a digital innovation hub in the area that will house hundreds of their technical staff.

Emap is also moving into the area, whilst Google is to extend its London Campus, currently based in Tech City, to the rest of the UK through a mentoring service and network programmes. The London Campus is thriving, with around 5,000 members, 100 of which have office space at the flourishing hub.

Fittingly, Tech City is now giving the UK's startups another opportunity to fly the flag for Great Britain. The StartUp Games, a competition delivered by the Tech City Investment Organisation and StartUp Britain will give the world's most talented entrepreneurs the chance to be recognised as an international startup champion.

During three days of intense training and competition, participants will hear from digital leaders such as Dan Crow, CTO of Songkick; Paul Birch, Co-Founder of Bebo; and Debu Purkayastha, Principal, New Business Development at Google.

Initiatives like these give our capital's startups the chance to shine. But to continue to stay ahead of the pack, Tech City must continue to grow, and quickly. It risks being overtaken by burgeoning European tech hubs from Berlin, Paris and Istanbul.

Our growing businesses need space at a good price, and this is something that the government hopes that the post-2012 Olympic Park will provide, by turning East London into a 'tech corridor'.

In a leap forward for the scheme, the Olympics media centre near Stratford is going to be transformed into a technology hub. iCITY, the idea developed by IT firm Infinity, is the sole preferred bidder to become the tenant of the media centre. iCITY's proposal is to develop the space into a hub for creative technology industries - in a move that has been warmly welcomed by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Naysayers have said that it will be difficult to create the same unique mix that has resulted in such a hotbed of talent on the Old Street roundabout. Admittedly, there are several enticements that would be difficult to replicate, such as the unique character of the bars and restaurants of Shoreditch and Hoxton that make Tech City such an appealing place to work...and network.

Time will tell whether the Olympic Park will be a place where startups will thrive, but in my view, any move that looks to expand the tech scene of East London is a good one.

Tech City is doing well, but like any top squad, the leaders in the UK technology field are hungry for more. They will need more space and low rents, more investors and more innovators, better broadband and wifi connectivity, more flotations, and really more business model disruption.

So this focus on boosting London's tech scene should be applauded and continued. We need to keep Tech City ahead of the pack - and in doing so keep it a source of national identity and pride.]]>The Creative Destruction of the Banks Could be Sooner Than They Thinktag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.16453482012-07-03T05:17:34-04:002012-09-02T05:12:16-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
Pitched into turmoil by the financial crisis and irrevocably scarred by the bonuses fiasco, these issues follow a long series of troubles for the banking sector, with customer confidence at an all time low.

The BBC's Robert Peston described it as "a tragedy for all of us, because we need these institutions."

For several years it has been clear that this is a segment of the economy that is ripe for disruption - and fittingly a new wave of entrepreneurial contenders have started to break through.

With the launch in 2010 of Metro Bank and its subsequent expansion - it recently raised £126 million from investors - the bank's emphasis on customer service, long opening hours and a pleasant customer experience is proving to be a promising model, which provides a contrasting alternative in the market.

As Britain's first new high street bank in over 100 years, Metro Bank calls itself a "revolution in banking", and many disillusioned customers feeling badly treated by the main banks have turned to this fresh, entrepreneurial contender.

And there is more good news for small firms, with the recent announcement that Silicon Valley Bank is to be the newest entrant in the sector.

Silicon Valley Bank's UK chief Phil Cox has pledged that the bank will increase its lending in the UK to billions "very quickly". The bank has promised make loans of between £300,000 and £30m to established companies looking to expand and has undertaken to help the UK's entrepreneurs "meet and exceed their ambitious goals" - a welcome assurance and a wake up call to other UK retail banks that have been continually attacked for restricting lending to small businesses.

In response, a host of innovative businesses have stepped in to fill the gap. Peer-to-peer lenders such as Zopa, Crowdcube, and Funding Circle are providing innovative new ways for startups to raise investment and their rapid growth is ample demonstration that dissatisfaction is often the vital spur required for entrepreneurial innovation.

These disruptive upstarts have caused Andy Haldane, head of policy at the Bank of England to agree that small peer-to-peer lenders could change the way entrepreneurs finance their business, and even in time replace high street banks.

The economist Joseph Schumpeter famously used the phrase 'creative destruction' to describe the act of replacing something old and defunct with something new and fresh.

Right now our banking system has to address a perfect storm of perceived incompetence, alleged criminality and widespread distrust. With customers crying out to be treated better, these things have to be addressed or they will vote with their feet.

With the arrival of new businesses that can do it better, faster or smarter, the incumbents need to watch out - the 'creative destruction' of the banks could be sooner than they think.]]>For Startups, Marketing Should Always Be at the Top Tabletag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15585542012-05-31T07:56:31-04:002012-07-31T05:12:17-04:00Russ Shawhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-shaw/
Those who lead digital businesses are often skilled in engineering, product development or finance. They start with a good idea for a product that they think people will want, and then spend months perfecting it without ever looking to potential customers for feedback.

This is a huge error, and one that can lead businesses into massive difficulty in the long run. To thrive, every startup needs to ensure that marketing is brought forward in the cycle - not just as an add-on to help boost sales, but to help to facilitate the business idea itself.

You just have to look at a global success story such as Apple to see the role that a strong marketing strategy plays in creating and maintaining its position as the world's most valuable business.

Closer to home, the asset that marks out successful UK tech startups such as Moshi Monsters and Songkick - aside from a smart idea, excellent technology, and brilliant execution - is the fact that these businesses have embraced the building of strong and sustainable brand propositions.

With the abundant opportunities now to market effectively through social media and viral channels there is no need to have a huge budget. It's a misconception that an effective marketing plan requires a great deal of extra capital or investment.

Both Moshi Monsters and Songkick have demonstrated the use of cost effective tools to build brand visibility, and they have both been very successful in raising venture capital as a result.

In your marketing plan, it is customers who should become your best advisors. It may seem obvious, but your company won't survive if you don't have a market that wants to buy your product and services, so businesses need to make it as easy as possible for customers to engage with them. You just can't afford to just build a business with the mentality that customers will come to you.

Early stage businesses must get customer feedback very early in the process if they want to improve their chances of succeeding. Markets and customers move very quickly, and if you wait to create your marketing strategy even six months down the line, it could be too late, and your business could by then be irrelevant.

It may also not be the natural inclination of many startups to look at building up a PR plan if their firm is still in the beta stage, but it is something that needs to be established. Your business needs to get out there and shout about the things that make it a unique and desirable proposition for customers.

So to all startups looking to build up their firm, ignore communications and marketing at your peril. Ensure marketing is at the top table from the outset to keep your offer both relevant and visible to prospective customers.]]>